“Let both [wheat and tares] grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” Matt.13:30
This has been happening throughout the last 2,000 years, and has been witnessed by God’s elect in each generation. Many have been the times when God’s children would have dearly loved to recognise and dispose of those clandestine false brethren and false apostles, but this has not been allowed. The falsehood was described by our Lord in terms of “tares”, ZIZANIA in Greek, plants which look disarmingly like true wheat during their growth. It is only when the fruit appears that the truth emerges for all to see. The seeds of the tare are black, whilst those of true wheat are golden.
This lesson has frequently been preached in churches, often whilst a few “tares” are actually seated in the congregation. But God never allows His enemy to wreak havoc to His people. Lessons are learned, distinctions between good and evil more clearly understood, and spiritual insight granted to expose all that is not of God. And as the Apostle John said, eventually, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” 1 John 2:19
UNTIL THE HARVEST. There is the promise! There WILL be a harvest. There WILL be a time when a wholesale separation will be made, and we can rely upon our Master’s word with absolute certainty. Every time the word UNTIL occurs, it speaks of God’s promises, which can never fail.
